Government should mandate a return path for Internet access in the tender it will issue soon for the digital television set-top boxes it will subsidise for millions of poorer South Africans as the country moves in the next few years from analogue to digital broadcasting technology, says an industry lobby group
Democratic Alliance MP and shadow deputy communications minister Butch Steyn wants clarity from communications minister Dina Pule about whether or not foreign-made set-top boxes or digital converters for digital terrestrial television can be sold in SA. Steyn has written a letter to Pule
Virgin Mobile SA CEO Steve Bailey, who resigned from the company this month, has been appointed as chief commercial officer at Glo, the second largest mobile operator in Nigeria after MTN with more than 25m subscribers. Bailey says he will take up the new role as soon as he receives the
In the wake of news that a highly complex piece of malicious software, apparently developed by a nation-state government and targeting computers mainly in Iran, information security specialist Symantec warns that the number of malware attacks is soaring across the board. Earlier this week, Iran admitted it
The government is considering introducing an appropriations bill to give Sanral a cash injection to allow it to service its R20bn debt, deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe said on Thursday. Failure to meet Sanral’s debt repayments while the legal battle over e-tolling in Gauteng continued would have dire
In the escalating smartphone wars, the battle for supremacy is being waged between Apple and Samsung Electronics. In the first quarter of 2012, it’s estimated the two companies consumed all of the industry’s profits and 74% of its revenues. Where does this leave BlackBerry’s Research in Motion, Nokia
Cellular operator Cell C may retrench as much as 12% of its workforce as it seeks to eliminate “overstaffing”, TechCentral has established. The company informed its employees this week that a “process of consultation” with them was being started to “streamline the business”. It’s understood that Cell C’s networking
The SA Communications Forum (SACF), an industry grouping that includes the SABC and the country’s biggest telecommunications operators, plans to lobby the department of communications to include a “return path” in the subsidised set-top boxes that the country’s poorer consumers will purchase when
Pitched as an “SA-inspired” tablet, the first generation of Wise Touch Tablets are meant as a budget alternative to high-end tablets. The tablets offer preinstalled localised content and are intended for educational applications. The biggest selling point of the Wise tablet is its price. At R2 100 for the Wi-Fi-only
Telkom has expressed “great concern” about copper theft after customers in parts of Randburg, Johannesburg were without service again this week, for the second time this month, after thieves made off with cables. More than 1 600 business and residential customers have been affected in the Randburg suburbs
